Delusion in Death (In Death 35)

“No, not that. Carly was very driven, very focused on advancing her career. She’d often pick my brain for an assignment or project. That was fine.” He waved that away, a man burdened, but accepting the weight. “But I wasn’t in the mood yesterday. In fact, I remember now, seeing her made me decide to go back, just close myself into my office. But I saw her, poor Carly. I must’ve been one of the last people to see her alive.”

“Like Joe.”

“Yes. This is very upsetting. Could I have some water?”

“Absolutely.” Eve rose, got a bottle herself and offered it. “Just take your time, Lew. What did you do next?”

“I might have walked just a little more, then I turned around, and …”

“You saw something.” Eve leaned toward him. “What did you see?”

“Who,” he murmured. “It’s who I saw. I saw Jeni.”

Eve sat back, once again leveled a stare at Teasdale. “You saw Jeni Curve. Where?”

“Across the street, maybe a half a block—less, I think, from the café. But I’m used to seeing her around. I didn’t think about it, didn’t even retain it—or so I thought.”

“What was she doing?”

He closed his eyes, balled his fists. “She was talking to someone. A man. His back’s to me. I don’t see his face. He’s taller than she is. Yes, taller, broader, and wearing a black coat. He—does he give her something? I think yes, yes, she puts what he gives her in her coat pocket.”

“What next? Think!”

“I—I hardly paid attention. He kissed her—lightly, on both cheeks. Like a salute. He walks away, and she walks toward the café. This doesn’t seem real.”

“Did you see him with anyone else?” Eve demanded. “Did you see where he went?”

“I only know he walked in the same direction I was, but across the street, ahead of me. I stopped to look in a shop window, just to stall going back to the office. I didn’t see him again, or Jeni. Or any of them.”

“Lew, I want you to think and think hard. Did you ever see Jeni Curve with CiCi Way?”

She set both of their photos on the conference table. “Do you ever remember seeing these women together?”

“I can’t be sure. I’d see Jeni so often—in the offices when she made deliveries, or in the café when she picked something up. Even around the neighborhood. I can’t be sure if I saw her with this other woman.”

“You can’t link the two of them together,” Teasdale pointed out. “You’ve got Curve walking into the place she worked, and Way at the bar—with friends. You’ve got nothing that ties them to this.”

“We push on Way again. We can take Lew in, let her see him, shake her up. Would you be willing to do that?” Eve asked him.

“Anything I can do to help.”

“Let’s go back to Curve for a minute. You saw her talking to someone just before she went in. You said you’d see her around the neighborhood. Did you ever see her with someone? With this man?”

“I think … I think I may have. I wish I could be sure.”

“What about when she delivered to the office? Did she spend more time with certain people than with others?”

“Well, Steve flirted with her. He told you that himself. And she’d talk to Carly from time to time. They were close to the same age, I suppose.”

“Not with you, particularly.”

“No. She was just the delivery girl.”

“Yeah, just the delivery girl.”

“Do you think that’s why this person—this leader—used her?” Callaway widened his eyes. “She was young, susceptible. No one in particular, if you know what I mean. I imagine manipulating her, and this other woman, this CiCi, would have been easy for someone like him.”

“Like him?”